what to look for when buying a e46 330 d??
Discussion
HI
Im new to BMW's but have always loved the 330 derv monster, i drove one when i worked on it for a customer and was very impressed!! They are now affordable for me but im just looking for a few what to look for when purchasing tips? I build cars for a living so im ok with the spanners but as ive said im not up with Bm's.
I want a manual and ideally i would like it mapped etc. So is there any areas to check that you experienced owners know about? I remember changing the rear wheel bearings on the afore mentioned 330 and that was not a pleasant job!!
If any of you guys know of a nice manual, leather clad 330 d i would also be interested
Im new to BMW's but have always loved the 330 derv monster, i drove one when i worked on it for a customer and was very impressed!! They are now affordable for me but im just looking for a few what to look for when purchasing tips? I build cars for a living so im ok with the spanners but as ive said im not up with Bm's.
I want a manual and ideally i would like it mapped etc. So is there any areas to check that you experienced owners know about? I remember changing the rear wheel bearings on the afore mentioned 330 and that was not a pleasant job!!
If any of you guys know of a nice manual, leather clad 330 d i would also be interested
I was going to buy a 330d just last weekend, and was amazed by the sheer volume of absolute dross on the market. Patchy histories, one key missing, loads of owners, and most for sale by complete imbeciles 
I eventually compromised and bought a later 320d 6-speed just because everything about the car was right. A cheeky remap will give me 330d bhp & torque anyway 
Oh, and ask any seller outside a BMW forum about if the swirlflap blanking plates have been fitted, and they have no idea what you are talking about! Here's where you buy them from http://www.pmwltd.co.uk/?page_id=155
I eventually compromised and bought a later 320d 6-speed just because everything about the car was right. A cheeky remap will give me 330d bhp & torque anyway Oh, and ask any seller outside a BMW forum about if the swirlflap blanking plates have been fitted, and they have no idea what you are talking about! Here's where you buy them from http://www.pmwltd.co.uk/?page_id=155I bought a 330d in November. A couple of months ago it decided to eat it's own turbo. Bought at 120k and did about 10k in it before the failure if I recall correctly. (Off the top of my head here.)
Decided to fit a brand new turbo, change the breather, do swirl flap blanks and decat plus a full oil and all filters service plus replacing gaskets etc as I went. Parts came to £1,400 and it took 2 people (well, 1.5 most of the time!) about 20hrs in total, so 30 man hours I guess. We are not professionals, nor were we rushing. But we did a good job of removing and cleaning all the pipe work etc.
I'd estimate that getting that same work done at a specialist would have been £3k all in, as they'd want £1,200 for the turbo, plus £500 for the ancillaries inc blanks, decat, filters, oil etc, plus maybe 15hrs at £50 so £750 labour makes £2,450+VAT = £2,940.
This is on a car I bought for about £5.5k. Not ideal, but it doesn't half go well now I've put the new turbo on, decat and given the pipes a good clean out! I'll have to keep it a while to get my money's worth, but I'm HOPING that I won't get any more big bills any time soon!
So yeah, just be aware that things like turbos will eventually fail, and you need to be prepared for that as they could go anytime really.
Decided to fit a brand new turbo, change the breather, do swirl flap blanks and decat plus a full oil and all filters service plus replacing gaskets etc as I went. Parts came to £1,400 and it took 2 people (well, 1.5 most of the time!) about 20hrs in total, so 30 man hours I guess. We are not professionals, nor were we rushing. But we did a good job of removing and cleaning all the pipe work etc.
I'd estimate that getting that same work done at a specialist would have been £3k all in, as they'd want £1,200 for the turbo, plus £500 for the ancillaries inc blanks, decat, filters, oil etc, plus maybe 15hrs at £50 so £750 labour makes £2,450+VAT = £2,940.
This is on a car I bought for about £5.5k. Not ideal, but it doesn't half go well now I've put the new turbo on, decat and given the pipes a good clean out! I'll have to keep it a while to get my money's worth, but I'm HOPING that I won't get any more big bills any time soon!
So yeah, just be aware that things like turbos will eventually fail, and you need to be prepared for that as they could go anytime really.
the_kato said:
Dunno if 330d's have them, but when I removed the swirl flaps from my 320 I changed the turbo breather to the new style vortex one. That's something you want to get sorted
Agreed.For those who may not know what this is: Basically when the 'bang' goes off in the cylinder there's always (every car) a small amount of 'blow by' past the piston rings. This pressurises the crank case, so a 'breather' is required to connect the crank case to the outside and allow the pressure out. This can feed into the air, or the inlet track somewhere, or a swirl pot. The air obviously has a bit of atomised oil in it, so the breather is designed to trap that oil to keep the environment clean. The 'old style' breathers on the 320d and 330d had a foam filter which could get clogged by oil, leading to a blockage. The pressure in the crank case then looks for the next easiest way out... which is quite often via the oil seals in the turbo, knackering the turbo. So the breather should be changed for the new 'vortex' design which doesn't rely on a cloggable filter, instead it separates out the oil more like a dyson vacuum. Less chance of clogging and hence less chance of blowing the turbo. A good 'preventative' mod well worth doing when you do the swirl flaps as it's in the same sort of area when you're working on the car.
Can't really add too much to the posts above.
First mods would be the swirl flap blanks, vortex breather and clean up of the EGR valve. I did this to my 330cd during the first week of ownership. My original swirl flaps were all leaking in the manifold, so I had a nice slick of oil on the r/h/s (as you look at it) of the block!
Clutches can wear on the manuals and I'd also recommend changing the "sealed for life" fluids. Mine's done 12k miles in the last 6 months and hasn't missed a beat. Returns a comfortable 42-44mpg and is just a lovely car to drive.
Matt
First mods would be the swirl flap blanks, vortex breather and clean up of the EGR valve. I did this to my 330cd during the first week of ownership. My original swirl flaps were all leaking in the manifold, so I had a nice slick of oil on the r/h/s (as you look at it) of the block!
Clutches can wear on the manuals and I'd also recommend changing the "sealed for life" fluids. Mine's done 12k miles in the last 6 months and hasn't missed a beat. Returns a comfortable 42-44mpg and is just a lovely car to drive.
Matt
I've had my 51 plate for 5 years,1 bought it with 130k miles showing - everyone I talked to thought I was barking mad. Had initial probs with a couple of duff injectors. I'm now showing 296k,and it runs ok and still returns over 40 mpg.
I've had some age related repairs done ( rusty brake pipes,plastic manifold leaks,water pump failure) and the rest has been brakes and bushes (changed to poly got fed up doing them every 50k). All the engine and drivetrain ( including clutch) have not been touched in my ownership. Mine,I was told by a specialist is an early one without the swirl flap issue. Can't help but be impressed by the old beast though !!
I've had some age related repairs done ( rusty brake pipes,plastic manifold leaks,water pump failure) and the rest has been brakes and bushes (changed to poly got fed up doing them every 50k). All the engine and drivetrain ( including clutch) have not been touched in my ownership. Mine,I was told by a specialist is an early one without the swirl flap issue. Can't help but be impressed by the old beast though !!
You say you want a manual, in which case (assuming you are looking at the earlier 5 speed e46 330d) then it WILL NOT have swirl flaps. So rest easy. I bought a manual over an auto, partly for that reason and also partly because I was left very unimpressed by the autobox on my e39 and already own another auto so thought I would mix it up a little.
Two tips from me that others have not mentioned:
Check all windows all the way down and all the way up. Listen for the noise of scraping / grinding and watch to see if the windows seem "sticky". Regulators are prone to going and this costs.
Park on a steepish incline if you can. For some reason, the e46 handbrake set up would not appear to be the best! If anything needs replacing, best to know this before rather than (as in my case sadly) after purchase!
Two tips from me that others have not mentioned:
Check all windows all the way down and all the way up. Listen for the noise of scraping / grinding and watch to see if the windows seem "sticky". Regulators are prone to going and this costs.
Park on a steepish incline if you can. For some reason, the e46 handbrake set up would not appear to be the best! If anything needs replacing, best to know this before rather than (as in my case sadly) after purchase!
nsi said:
I bought a 330d in November. A couple of months ago it decided to eat it's own turbo. Bought at 120k and did about 10k in it before the failure if I recall correctly. (Off the top of my head here.)
Decided to fit a brand new turbo, change the breather, do swirl flap blanks and decat plus a full oil and all filters service plus replacing gaskets etc as I went. Parts came to £1,400 and it took 2 people (well, 1.5 most of the time!) about 20hrs in total, so 30 man hours I guess. We are not professionals, nor were we rushing. But we did a good job of removing and cleaning all the pipe work etc.
I'd estimate that getting that same work done at a specialist would have been £3k all in, as they'd want £1,200 for the turbo, plus £500 for the ancillaries inc blanks, decat, filters, oil etc, plus maybe 15hrs at £50 so £750 labour makes £2,450+VAT = £2,940.
This is on a car I bought for about £5.5k. Not ideal, but it doesn't half go well now I've put the new turbo on, decat and given the pipes a good clean out! I'll have to keep it a while to get my money's worth, but I'm HOPING that I won't get any more big bills any time soon!
So yeah, just be aware that things like turbos will eventually fail, and you need to be prepared for that as they could go anytime really.
I would have to disagree with the specialist price of £3k for this work - maybe if the specialist is a specialist at ripping you off.Decided to fit a brand new turbo, change the breather, do swirl flap blanks and decat plus a full oil and all filters service plus replacing gaskets etc as I went. Parts came to £1,400 and it took 2 people (well, 1.5 most of the time!) about 20hrs in total, so 30 man hours I guess. We are not professionals, nor were we rushing. But we did a good job of removing and cleaning all the pipe work etc.
I'd estimate that getting that same work done at a specialist would have been £3k all in, as they'd want £1,200 for the turbo, plus £500 for the ancillaries inc blanks, decat, filters, oil etc, plus maybe 15hrs at £50 so £750 labour makes £2,450+VAT = £2,940.
This is on a car I bought for about £5.5k. Not ideal, but it doesn't half go well now I've put the new turbo on, decat and given the pipes a good clean out! I'll have to keep it a while to get my money's worth, but I'm HOPING that I won't get any more big bills any time soon!
So yeah, just be aware that things like turbos will eventually fail, and you need to be prepared for that as they could go anytime really.
A mate with a 330d had the same work done [his car had 160k – so turbo lasted a good mileage, I know people with fords, Toyota, nissans that turbo’s went at 40-60k] for much less by my mechanic. Instead of spending £1200 on a bmw turbo [that is total madness on 5k car in my opinion – actually spending £3k on a £5k car is madness] he got it professionally reconditioned. And before people say recon is not the job, this was done by a reputable company - it’s basically a brand new OE turbo with new parts fitted and was fully balanced etc with a 12month warranty - for £300 inc vat. The bmw ones have a 2 year warranty but the turbo is not gonna go in 2 years – if looked after - and even if it did – you could recondition you existing turbo 4 times for the price of the BMW one. Engine breather is £52. My mechanic removed turbo, then fitted recon one when back, put in the engine breather [my mate got the filters himself so this is not included in the cost] and changed oil and oil filter. He also removed the swirl flaps. Total Cost for mechanic [proper oil] £160. It’s an easy job, the turbo is very easy to get at as is the manifold, and it’s an easy fix on it. It really annoys me when I hear rip-off so called ‘specialists’ - charging ridiculous prices for such work. My mechanic is not a BMW Specialist par se - i.e. doesn’t advertise himself as such, but does a lot of work on BMWs, Merc, etc. Any decent quality mechanic are as good as so called specialist if they have experience in BMWs, Merc, etc.
If anyone is getting such work done, ask the mechanic how much it’s gonna cost – and if expensive go to someone else!
Also, the key [and blindingly obvious] thing is to stop the car when the turbo is on the way out - ie white smoke etc, and dont drive on full chat as some stupid people do and do more damage
Another point, when people worry about turbo going in any older car – I think the fear of financial ruin is vastly over exaggerated. If you are dumb enough to go to a dealer for a new turbo then it will be stupidly expensive [if car out of warranty], but if you do that’s your own silly fault.
As previously stated you can properly recondition a turbo to as new spec and get this fitted – including an oil service [obviously as this is necessary] for £450 maximum
And you read any long term reports in car mags lots of dealer would charge not far off this for a simple service. For example in a letter in this month’s evo mag someone was getting a SLK200 serviced for its 18,000 miles service [this is a minor service] and it cost £470 as far as I remember. So, 450 for a recon turbo and service isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of all things car related!
Even a standard dealer service on a standard Honda, Toyota, VW or whatever can cost over £200 for just an oil and filter change. I know some garages have better deals on but lots of people pay way over the odds. And the work is not even guaranteed to be done – ask anyone who works at a main dealer, the stuff that goes on is sickening. A service can be a stamp in the book and a very quick wash if it’s a Friday avo you have you car booked in for!
As previously stated you can properly recondition a turbo to as new spec and get this fitted – including an oil service [obviously as this is necessary] for £450 maximum
And you read any long term reports in car mags lots of dealer would charge not far off this for a simple service. For example in a letter in this month’s evo mag someone was getting a SLK200 serviced for its 18,000 miles service [this is a minor service] and it cost £470 as far as I remember. So, 450 for a recon turbo and service isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of all things car related!
Even a standard dealer service on a standard Honda, Toyota, VW or whatever can cost over £200 for just an oil and filter change. I know some garages have better deals on but lots of people pay way over the odds. And the work is not even guaranteed to be done – ask anyone who works at a main dealer, the stuff that goes on is sickening. A service can be a stamp in the book and a very quick wash if it’s a Friday avo you have you car booked in for!
Generally speaking, reconditioning is NOT recommended for turbo's using the "electronic" actuator system for the VNT. This is because the reconditioners do not have the specialist rig required to correctly set the position of the vane control arm. Now, of course, you might get lucky and it may just work (there is a certain amount of "position adaption" built into the boost control strategy) but it might not. if you look hard enough you can find new, genuine OEM part numbered Garrett turbo's for approx £700 (i know, 'cause i did mine at 110k miles ;-)
A
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Yeah, fair point in regards to the VNT but a lot of these recon’s actually have a full 2 yr warranty regardless. But yeah you can get the garret ones handily enough for about £700 or so as you say.
But I do think getting a ‘specialist’ or worse still bmw to fit a £1200 bmw unit to a cheap car costing a few grand doesn’t make any sense. The labour costs some people charge is just plain robbery – some people end up paying £2000 for a just new turbo fitted to a say £4000 car
But I do think getting a ‘specialist’ or worse still bmw to fit a £1200 bmw unit to a cheap car costing a few grand doesn’t make any sense. The labour costs some people charge is just plain robbery – some people end up paying £2000 for a just new turbo fitted to a say £4000 car
MJTD said:
I would have to disagree with the specialist price of £3k for this work - maybe if the specialist is a specialist at ripping you off.
A mate with a 330d had the same work done [his car had 160k – so turbo lasted a good mileage, I know people with fords, Toyota, nissans that turbo’s went at 40-60k] for much less by my mechanic. Instead of spending £1200 on a bmw turbo [that is total madness on 5k car in my opinion – actually spending £3k on a £5k car is madness] he got it professionally reconditioned. And before people say recon is not the job, this was done by a reputable company - it’s basically a brand new OE turbo with new parts fitted and was fully balanced etc with a 12month warranty - for £300 inc vat. The bmw ones have a 2 year warranty but the turbo is not gonna go in 2 years – if looked after - and even if it did – you could recondition you existing turbo 4 times for the price of the BMW one. Engine breather is £52. My mechanic removed turbo, then fitted recon one when back, put in the engine breather [my mate got the filters himself so this is not included in the cost] and changed oil and oil filter. He also removed the swirl flaps. Total Cost for mechanic [proper oil] £160. It’s an easy job, the turbo is very easy to get at as is the manifold, and it’s an easy fix on it. It really annoys me when I hear rip-off so called ‘specialists’ - charging ridiculous prices for such work. My mechanic is not a BMW Specialist par se - i.e. doesn’t advertise himself as such, but does a lot of work on BMWs, Merc, etc. Any decent quality mechanic are as good as so called specialist if they have experience in BMWs, Merc, etc.
If anyone is getting such work done, ask the mechanic how much it’s gonna cost – and if expensive go to someone else!
Also, the key [and blindingly obvious] thing is to stop the car when the turbo is on the way out - ie white smoke etc, and dont drive on full chat as some stupid people do and do more damage
i) I didn't spend £3k on a £5k car. I spent £1.4k on a £5.5k car.A mate with a 330d had the same work done [his car had 160k – so turbo lasted a good mileage, I know people with fords, Toyota, nissans that turbo’s went at 40-60k] for much less by my mechanic. Instead of spending £1200 on a bmw turbo [that is total madness on 5k car in my opinion – actually spending £3k on a £5k car is madness] he got it professionally reconditioned. And before people say recon is not the job, this was done by a reputable company - it’s basically a brand new OE turbo with new parts fitted and was fully balanced etc with a 12month warranty - for £300 inc vat. The bmw ones have a 2 year warranty but the turbo is not gonna go in 2 years – if looked after - and even if it did – you could recondition you existing turbo 4 times for the price of the BMW one. Engine breather is £52. My mechanic removed turbo, then fitted recon one when back, put in the engine breather [my mate got the filters himself so this is not included in the cost] and changed oil and oil filter. He also removed the swirl flaps. Total Cost for mechanic [proper oil] £160. It’s an easy job, the turbo is very easy to get at as is the manifold, and it’s an easy fix on it. It really annoys me when I hear rip-off so called ‘specialists’ - charging ridiculous prices for such work. My mechanic is not a BMW Specialist par se - i.e. doesn’t advertise himself as such, but does a lot of work on BMWs, Merc, etc. Any decent quality mechanic are as good as so called specialist if they have experience in BMWs, Merc, etc.
If anyone is getting such work done, ask the mechanic how much it’s gonna cost – and if expensive go to someone else!
Also, the key [and blindingly obvious] thing is to stop the car when the turbo is on the way out - ie white smoke etc, and dont drive on full chat as some stupid people do and do more damage
ii) I didn't mention it in this post, but I did send the turbo away to be reconditioned (on a £300 all in service), but it was FUBAR and not repairable, despite shutting the car off as soon as I realised it was a turbo failure, less than 1/4mile. My alternatives then were a scrap yard, a reconditioned one, or a new one. I didn't want a scrapy yard one because that could fail soon after fitting. The price difference between a recon one and a new one was small enough that I wanted the knowlege I was fitting a new part.
iii) OK I will accept that if a specailist can get the turbo out in significantly less time that I spent then the number of hours (and therfore labour cost) will be much less. (We couldn't get it out without removing the airbox, which is built into the cam cover, so the cam cover plus injectors and fuel rail etc had to come off. I know there is a way to get the turbo off whilst the maifold and airbox are still in situ, but we couldn't do it. So yeah, the number of hours for a pro would be less than I spent.
iv) Are you aware that the 'BMW Turbo' IS a Garett Turbo? BMW don't make their own, they fit Garett ones from new. Also, due to the number of turbos failing on these cars BMW has bought up several months worth of supply from Garett, making it hard to get one outside the BMW network. This is particularly true with the electrically actuated ones (I was lucky mine was vacuum actuated), because as mentioned these can't really be reconditioned due to it being (so I'm told) near impossible to get the calibration right on them. The two garett official distributors in the UK refuse to recondition them, and insist on new unit only.
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